Honest History’s vice president summarises the current state and recent history of freedom in the wide brown land whose young men died in the Great War ‘for freedom and honour’.

Democratic governments foist on us propaganda about an endless “War on Terror” and a succession of enemies – from radical Islam, to Russian assassins, to Chinese spies – frightening citizens into accepting laws that allow unrestricted invigilation of every aspect of their lives. Paradoxically, while our leaders invoke an “international rules-based order”, their laws resemble those of tyrannical regimes, preventing citizens from finding out what those in control are doing and making it unlawful even to ask. The more the authorities claim their secrecy is in the “national interest”, the less it’s likely that what they are up to is in the public interest.

The author concludes with a list of examples, covering environmental protection, possible war crimes, banking, bribery, the abuse of children, asylum seekers, and the arms trade.